Tehran, YJC. Iran’s national basketball team has beatenTaipei to win the final match of the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup held at Wuhan, China.
Iranian basketball players hammered the Taipei 89-79 in the
match held at the Wuhan Gymnasium on Saturday, claiming their second Asian Cup.
Hamed Haddadi, the first Iranian player in the US National
Basketball Association (NBA), became the top scorer of the game with 21 points,
followed by Mohammad Jamshidi with 20 points, Press TV reports.
"We did a lot of new things, but we also had control of the
scoreboard. I’m very happy the way they worked. It wasn’t perfect, but it was
never meant to be. We aimed making progress and we achieved that,” said Iran’s
coach Memi Becirovic.
Earlier on Saturday, the Philippines came in third after
winning host China 80-79.
On Friday, the Iranian players defeated Filipino players
76-55 to make their way to the final match. They also registered a convincing
75-60 victory over Jordan a day earlier to book a place at the tournament’s
semifinals.
The Iranian team also defeated India, Japan and Indonesia in
Group A matches of the cup.
The 5th edition of FIBA Asia Cup started in the Chinese city
of Wuhan on July 11, and ran until July 19.
Iran was automatically qualified for the FIBA Asia
Championship in 2015.